After surviving hurricane winds and an ice storm over the course of the past year, the area now adds a major flood to the list of natural disasters that have caught federal attention. On August 14, FEMA declared a federal disaster in Jefferson County, Kentucky, regarding the severe storms and flooding that took place in the Louisville area on August 4. This designation sets in motion a variety of relief mechanisms and financial implications for affected parties. Continue reading “Jefferson County Flooding Leads to Federal Disaster Tax Relief”
How Lean is Your Sales Tax Compliance?
Lean is certainly a buzzword within today’s manufacturing industry. In fact, a recent internet search on “lean manufacturing” resulted in over 1.85 million hits. Lean manufacturing can be defined as a production practice that considers the expenditure of resources for any goal other than the creation of value for the end customer to be wasteful, and thus a target for elimination. It is easy to see how lean concepts can be applied to the production floor, but have you considered how “lean” your sales tax compliance is? Continue reading “How Lean is Your Sales Tax Compliance?”
Maximize Cash Flow: Minimize Taxes: Twelve Commonly Overlooked Tax Strategies
(Published in the April 2009 issue of Continuous Improvement Institute’s “Lean Business”)
As a decision maker in today’s difficult business environment, you have to take advantage of every available opportunity to create a competitive advantage. And sometimes those opportunities can be found in unexpected places – including your tax returns.
Improved Collections Lead to Improved Vacations
It’s that time of the year… time to pack up and head out for your summer vacation. However, if you’re like many owners of closely held businesses, this is sometimes easier said than done. If important things seem to grind to a halt when you’re out of the office, it may be time to consider developing processes in your organization that aren’t dependent on your being around. In other words, get the business out of your head and on paper in the form of policies and procedures that your trusted employees can administer. Continue reading “Improved Collections Lead to Improved Vacations”
Avoid Trap of Taxable Life Insurance Proceeds on Key-Man Policies
If you are like many owners of closely held businesses, you likely own life insurance policies to fund cross-purchase provisions in a buy-sell agreement. Or, perhaps you have obtained key-man life insurance to provide funds in the event of the death of a key employee. Continue reading “Avoid Trap of Taxable Life Insurance Proceeds on Key-Man Policies”
Harding, Shymanski & Company, P.S.C. receives 2008 Family Friendly and Diversity Practices Certificate of Recognition in the category of Health & Benefit Programs
EVANSVILLE, INDIANA (December 2008) Harding, Shymanski & Company, P.S.C. received the 2008 Diversity and Family Friendly Practices Award from The Evansville-Area Human Resource Association and the Chamber of Commerce of Southwest Indiana in the category of Health & Benefit Programs in recognition of being a leader in the Tri-state area in creating a work environment that embraces family friendly practices.
Harding, Shymanski & Company, P.S.C. receives 2008 Family Friendly and Diversity Practices Certificate of Recognition
EVANSVILLE, INDIANA (December 2008) Harding, Shymanski & Company, P.S.C. received the 2008 Family Friendly and Diversity Practices Certificate of Recognition from The Evansville-Area Human Resource Association and the Chamber of Commerce of Southwest Indiana for its outstanding leadership in creating a work environment that embraces diversity and family friendly practices.
Alternative Minimum Tax a Mess for Taxpayers, Accountants
Are your income tax returns finished yet?
Did you check out line 45 on the second page of your 1040? That’s where you look to see if you had to pay an extra amount of tax called the Alternative Minimum Tax (AMT).
Usually, when people see they’ve been required to add this mysterious little item onto their already high-enough income taxes, they are pretty perplexed. They feel like they’re being punished and they’re often not sure why.
So what is the Alternative Minimum Tax (AMT) anyway? It is a completely separate system of income taxes that exists in addition to the regular tax system. To find out whether it is owed, taxpayers have to calculate their regular taxes under the usual set of rules, and then calculate their AMT by using a different set of rules. Continue reading “Alternative Minimum Tax a Mess for Taxpayers, Accountants”
Harding, Shymanski & Company, P.S.C. receives 2007 Family Friendly and Diversity Practices Certificate of Recognition
EVANSVILLE, INDIANA (December 2007) Harding, Shymanski & Company, P.S.C. received the 2007 Family Friendly and Diversity Practices Certificate of Recognition from The Evansville-Area Human Resource Association and the Chamber of Commerce of Southwest Indiana for its outstanding leadership in creating a work environment that embraces diversity and family friendly practices.
New Auditing Standards to Impact Private Companies
Nonpublic companies receiving an annual financial statement audit may be seeing significant changes in the performance of their financial statement audits this year. To increase the effectiveness of financial statement audits, the American Institute of CPAs – the body that establishes standards for audits of nonpublic entities – issued a new suite of risk based auditing standards which will be effective for most December 31, 2007 audits. The new standards call for more of a “rifle” approach where the auditor identifies specific audit targets and acts as a financial statement sniper of sorts. Continue reading “New Auditing Standards to Impact Private Companies”